Black community’s hurt, anger transcends borders
Once more there is turmoil on the streets of the United States and once more it is due to the interaction of police with the black citizens of the country. But this is no ordinary turmoil, this is a coast-tocoast uprising based on the public execution of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer.
As though that was not enough to account for the angry response of the black community, this act of murder was the culmination of a series of incidents that occurred within the last month, not only because of the killing of innocent black people by police, but also because racism is so embedded in the zeitgeist of the nation that a white woman felt quite comfortable threatening to lie to police by “informing” them that a black man was menacing her when such was not the truth; the clear assumption was that she would be believed and he would be punished, probably severely.
The anger, hurt and pain these events have engendered cannot be confined by geographical borders. Thus, we see uprisings across the globe, including Canada.
These uprisings are not simply nice gestures supporting Floyd and his family, with very little having to do with the Canadian experience.
These responses are about the value of black lives and the realization that systemically, black lives really do not matter and black people are expected to function solely within the context of white hegemony.
For example: When the mantra of “there is no systemic racism in the country and province” continues to be chanted, black lives do not matter; when race-based data is not collected in the midst of a deadly pandemic which is taking, disproportionally, the lives of black people in identified geographic areas, black lives do not matter; when black people continue to be profiled by police and others, black lives do not matter; and when black people are not promoted at the same rate as white counterparts, black lives do not matter.
The modern-day lynching of George Floyd has served as the catalyst for the unleashing of many years of hurt and anger. Add the waiting, praying, understanding, teaching and forgiving and it becomes easy to understand why black people across the globe are protesting. They are frustrated, tired, fed up and disheartened.
Civil leaders and police have an opportunity to recognize these realities to assuage some of the pain of black people in Canada.
With the exception of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, others have been slow to “take a knee” in solidarity.
All is not lost, but the solution is a painful one and lies with white people. White people must be willing to confront their whiteness and to free themselves from its constraints.
They must internalize the fact that belief in the superiority of whiteness in which society is divided into those who are white, while all others come under the rubric of “people of colour,” is inherently unjust and unfair.
They must recognize that “whiteness” entraps them as much as it disparages and belittles others. Whiteness
entraps white people to the point they don’t know how not to be “white” and to simply “be.” Speaking about the need for equality but continuing to live unequally to the extent that a muscular black man is immediately viewed as a danger to self and community is not living as an equal; it is assuming superiority.
Black people do not have to learn how not to be black.
We experience it outside of our homes every day as we don the mask of whiteness to exist, function and bear the burden of living within a divided society that has relegated us to a lower status, whether or not that society is conscious of it.